


A Change Of Mind

by pansexualfandommess (redvelvetrose)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Age of Resistance - Freeform, Armitage Hux Has Feelings, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, Character Study, Comic Book Canon Reference, Fuck the First Order, Gen, Hux Out, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redvelvetrose/pseuds/pansexualfandommess
Summary: A brief character study of Armitage Hux and how he may have been compelled to turn on the First Order.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	A Change Of Mind

****

_Generously beta’d by gollyb *_ _Moodboard by[Utopia](https://hiersinddrachen.tumblr.com/)_

_“A person whom is unhappy with life realizes that their construction of a self-image is incompatible with their earthly reality._ _An unhappy person must alter their internal or external world; otherwise, their sadness, sorrow, grief, and misery will remain unabated. Misery and desperation can lead to change, but only if a person is willing to learn, explore, and try.”  
― Kilroy J. Oldster, _ _Dead Toad Scrolls_

Hux swallowed hard, watching the set of Allegiant General Pryde’s shoulders as the older man watched the Supreme Leader’s antics amidst the smoke and ruin of Mustafar. He hated being planet-side on any planet, let alone this ball of ash and lava. Pryde, on the other hand, stood casually with his hands clasped behind his back, looking as though he was on a summer holiday. “He’s really quite beautiful, actually,” he commented.

“Sir?” Hux asked, unable to find anything beautiful about this entire thing. A sound off to his right caught his attention and he turned swiftly, taking aim and firing off three bolts from his blaster in quick succession, delivering headshots to the three would-be assassins trying the sneak up on them.

Pryde barely even noticed. “Watching him work. There’s a certain savage beauty to it, don’t you think?”

Hux peered into the distance, watching Kylo Ren fight through scores of enemies, all Vader-worshippers of some stripe looking to protect the Sith Lord’s castle and whatever dusty relics were contained therein. “If you say so, sir,” Hux shook his head slightly. “Savage, I will agree with, but beautiful? Well, it’s not my place to comment on such a thing to a superior officer, sir.”

“Mm. No, perhaps not,” Pryde mused before turning to look at Hux. The younger man pulled his shoulders back slightly, straightening his posture. Pryde was damn near unreadable to him. Always had been even from the time he had been a small child. His father had admired Pryde and counted him as a friend to anyone who might be impressed. Little Armitage Hux had learned incredibly early on to judge his father’s moves and moods and micro-expressions. He had done the same with his father’s friends as well; Brooks, le Hivre, Horan, Julyan, Borrum, all of them. All of them dead now, incidentally too. Pryde, however, remained as inscrutable now as he had been then. Being unable to gauge the older man’s expression, he simply met his gaze evenly. He was sure to remain respectful but refused to lower his gaze.

“Come with me, Hux. There is something I think you should see. I doubt the esteemed Supreme Leader needs us to trail in his wake.” Without waiting for an answer, Pryde turned on his heel and shouldered past Hux, heading back towards their waiting shuttle.

Following, Hux frowned. This was not protocol. More to the point, it deliberately went against what Ren had ordered them to do. They were both supposed to remain on the hill until he returned. He opened his mouth to say as such, but Pryde beat him to it.

“You needn’t worry. I know where his next stop is. We’re merely anticipating his need of us,” he said as his only explanation.

“As you say, sir,” Hux voiced his understanding, although he still did not like this odd breech of protocol from a senior officer. Not that he would mind if Ren got angry with Pryde. That would make a refreshing change of pace, come to think of it.

He remained silent as they boarded the shuttle. Without speaking to their pilots, Pryde strode into the cockpit and entered coordinates himself, robbing Hux of having even the slightest clue of where they were going. Still, he was not going to ask and make a nuisance of himself. He merely took his seat behind the Allegiant General.

“Sir? Are you sure these are right? The nav computer doesn’t recognize them as belonging to any known system,” the pilot asked, his console blinking with warning.

“I am sure. Those coordinates are not our end destination. We have several jumps to make before we arrive. I will enter them in as needed,” Pryde said with an air of annoyance. “Just fly, Captain. I do not need your input.”

“Yes, sir. My apologies, sir,” the pilot quickly apologized, he and copilot hastily preparing for takeoff.

What possible destination needed multiple jumps to reach? A sick feeling washed over Hux. They were venturing into Unknown Space, a place he had exactly zero desire to ever venture into again. He remembered every white-knuckled minute of hurtling through mysterious paths, knowing that at any moment, they might be sucked into a gravity well or even crash right into a sudden planet or moon. People liked to say that space was comprised mostly of nothing. But there was enough ‘something’ about it to make an unguided trip suicide.

Outwardly, he was calm and even vaguely bored.

Inwardly, he was clawing at the walls to escape.

Pryde settled in his chair with a sigh, stretching his back briefly. That small sign of fatigue cheered Hux somewhat. Pryde may outrank him, but he was old. Slowing down. Another aging therapod doomed to become extinct. Hux was a patient man.

Closing his eyes briefly as they jumped into hyperspace, Hux held his breath until he was certain they were not about to explode. There were six more jumps for him to endure before they finally reached their destination. Almost as soon as they broke through the planet’s atmosphere, the shuttle quivered from the thunder and lightning all around them. In alarm, Hux looked to Pryde, confused when the old man seemed neither surprised nor concerned.

“Pull yourself together, boy. If you cannot handle a little storm, I fear you will not be up to what is in store,” Pryde said without looking back at him, his tone withering.

Hux silently choked down his rage at being addressed like a spoiled child. “Yes, sir,” he answered crisply, his voice coming out bland and properly admonished.

Although rough, they landed in one piece, allowing Pryde and Hux to exit the shuttle to the planet’s surface. The amount of dust and static in the air made Hux’s skin tingle with the lightest bit of electricity. Up his sleeve, the metal handle of his mono-molecular blade delivered a small shock against the inside of his wrist, making him twitch his arm slightly.

The landscape was barren and rocky, but for a massive and block-like structure ahead of them. He could not see how tall it was, the top of it shrouded in the cloud cover above. Warning bells were already going off in his head, every fiber of his body fighting the instinctive urge to flee back to the shuttle. After Pryde’s earlier comment, however, he was not about to showcase his waning courage again. He kept his pace, falling into step at Pryde’s heels, refusing to quail as they strode under the stone block.

The mere structure unnerved him. There were no support beams or any other bit of visible architecture to hold the massive weight looming over them steady. The “ceiling” above was only two or three feet above his head and Hux found himself measuring the distance back to the outside and wondering if he even would have the strength to flee if this thing started to collapse.

In the dim light, it was difficult to see, but Hux soon became aware of various robed figures moving past and around them, paying them no mind. Large bacta tanks rose into view and Hux drew closer curiously, only to draw back with a gasp as Snoke’s deformed face looked back at him dumbly. In the same tank, a few feet further up another deformed head, upside down but identical to the first, stared at him. Not bacta tanks, then… preserved remains.

“What-?” was all he could stammer out. “What is this? That’s Snoke, but… Snoke died on the Supremacy,” he shook his head, his voice low, almost to himself.

“My boy... I made Snoke,” a low, grating voice from the deepest shadows said in a slow voice.

Hux turned to see Pryde down on one knee before a vague figure that was somehow even darker than the surrounding blackness. A chill slid down his spine as he saw the spindly contraption supporting the owner of said voice.

“You have served Snoke well. Now… you will serve me well… young General… Hux,” the figure rasped, stopping for a noisy intake of breath after every few words.

The way this entity said his name immediately made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in alarm. “I make it a point to only serve those that do not hide themselves,” he countered, his voice sounding far braver than he felt.

“You served Snoke… before ever knowing him.”

“At my father’s command. I am no longer subject to his authority,” Hux shook his head, though he took a small step back.

“Yes… a man you murdered… before you became a general. One might… even think… that you killed him… to take his place.” Hux did not need to see the speaker to hear the smile in his voice. How did he know about his part in his father’s death? No one knew except Captain Phasma and she had been dead for over a year. “Oh, I know all about it, boy. Brendol Hux… was no longer useful to me by then. You did me a favor.”

“Who are you?” Hux asked, his voice a bit less brave now.

“The Emperor, you sniveling rat. Show some respect before Darth Sidious!” Pryde hissed, looking over his shoulder at Hux as though he was a particularly stupid child who was being deliberately obtuse.

“Emperor?” Hux repeated, looking up at the shadow and finally making out the hawkish nose and cowled head that he had previously only seen in holos. “Emperor Palpatine… alive?”

“The dark side of the force is a pathway… to many abilities, some considered to be.... unnatural,” the Emperor intoned, though he sounded somewhat pleased by Hux’s instinctive horror.

“Kneel, you idiot!” Pryde finally barked.

Hux dropped to one knee quickly, using the moment to look down at the dust-covered floor and organize his thoughts. “Apologies,” he muttered quickly.

“The First Order was only the beginning… the pieces are now in place… for the Final Order to begin. Even now… hundreds of Xyston-class Star Destroyers wait to launch from the planet; each one equipped… with the planet-killing capability of a Death Star,” Palpatine explained, starting to cackle with glee.

“Who will man these ships, my Lord? The First Order no longer has the numbers to staff that many ships,” Pryde asked in a genuinely curious tone, although he managed to shoot a blaming look in Hux’s direction, as though he was solely responsible for their lost manpower.

“The Sith Eternal, my faithful. They have had years to bring up and train their children. All but the youngest… are ready to fight and die for me,” Palapatine assured Pryde with an oily sort of confidence that made Hux shudder.

A noise behind them made both Hux and Pryde turn. Two of the hooded figures herded a small group of children along. The oldest could not have been more than nine; the youngest perhaps about three. Amid them, Hux could see a small, thin, red-haired boy, possibly around five years old, his pale face a mess of freckles. He stood straight and tall, shoulders drawn back; but Hux could see his lower lip tremble with fear.

“These younglings will be ready in a few years… but we have more than enough to pursue our victories now,” Palpatine said, his voice making all the children shrink away.

Something in Hux’s chest broke, watching them cower despite their need to appear unafraid. He knew that feeling, knew it all too well. This was not what he had ever wanted. He had put a stop to the Stormtrooper program’s child initiative as soon as he’d had the power to do so. He had not been kidnapped the way the other children had been but that had not made it any easier to be a child soldier under Commandant Brendol Hux’s command. He had seen children killed by their fellows or by angry commanding officers. Stars, he had even ordered such violence once or twice as a child commander before the true consequences had occurred to him.

“Hux!” Pryde’s acid-laced voice cut through his thoughts.

Hux snapped back to attention, earning only a disparaging look from the Allegiant General. The Emperor appeared to ignore his distraction and subsequent correction.

“You need not worry about Kylo Ren. I will deal with him… once he makes his way here. I have a mission in mind for him… and I have what he wants most to bring the pup to heel,” the Emperor said, answering whatever question Hux had missed. “Do not let on that you are yet aware of my involvement. Let him believe he is the only one. It makes the whelp feel… special.”

“It will be as you say, my lord,” Pryde nodded before standing up and brushing to dust from his one knee.

Hux followed suit, keeping his eyes down and turning to follow after Pryde, feeling the burn of Palpatine’s gaze on his back. The sensation lingered even after they were back on the shuttle. Pryde said nothing further to him, which allowed Hux some time to try to and reconcile what he had just seen. He knew little of the Emperor beyond what his sycophantic father had told him. He was impossibly powerful, both fiercely intelligent and a ruthless leader; a politician who had risen above the corruption and decadence of the Republic and finally brought peace and order to the galaxy. Brendol Hux had never met the Emperor face to face, only seen him from a distance; and even that experience had left a mark on his views. Views which he had very much impressed on his son.

For his own experience, Hux only remembered the agents that the Emperor and Vader had sent to the Academy on Arkanis. Inquisitors, they were called. Being face to face with one of them was remarkably close to what he had just experienced with Palpatine; a deep and unnerving sense of fear, of being utterly transparent. If the Inquisitors had been terrifying (and they most certainly were), then this Darth Sidious was mind-numbingly horrifying.

No one had ever mentioned that Palpatine was a Sith Lord.

He knew that Snoke and Ren, despite their extensive powers over the Dark Side, were not Sith. Although, if Palpatine had been pulling the strings, that explained the relentless search for Skywalker and whatever remained of the Jedi. It was just more of the same foolishness! The same mythos and religious zealotry that cost the Empire so dearly. It was all headed by that rotting corpse of a creature! They had been manipulated from the very beginning! All of them! They had all been duped!

Everything he had worked for was a lie. Order. Peace. Stability. Even Starkiller had been turned around and twisted from his original intent. His initial plans had called for it to be a terraforming tool, not a weapon. It was Snoke’s machinations that had prompted him to change the specs to be far more devastating. He had done it; and he had done it will little provocation. But to now know that it was truly at the behest of a Sith Lord with only his own interests in mind? Nausea was gripping his chest tightly and he swallowed carefully, breathing through his nose to will the sick feeling down.

This was it. The last straw. He could no longer tolerate the direction they were heading. He could no longer tolerate the disdain and contempt of Pryde, of Ren, of everyone. He was going to do something to stop it. To send it sideways at the very least.

As the shuttle broke through the atmosphere and headed into light speed, Hux closed his eyes and calmly began to concoct his plans. It would take some clever maneuverings and no small amount of sabotage on his part. But he would never answer to a Sith Lord again.


End file.
